Hydrodynamics of spray/wall interaction

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Cameron Tropea
• Subject Area: Fluid Mechanics
• Term: from 2005 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5449728

The proposed research is aimed at experimental and theoretical/numerical investigation of the hydrodynamics of spray impact onto a rigid target. Spray impacting onto such target creates on it a moving, fluctuating, liquid film. The flow in the film is caused by single drop impacts and by interactions in this film. In some cases such interactions lead to the creation of uprising sheets and jets which are unstable and create a flow of secondary droplets. Within the framework of this project an experimental setup for detailed investigation of spray impact onto a rigid target will be constructed and built. The set-up will consist of a test chamber accommodating exchangeable targets (spheres of different diameters, flat transparent), and the nozzle system, the liquid flow loop, phase-Doppler instrument, the traversing system, and a high-speed video camera. By changing the nozzles, the pressure in the line, the distance from the nozzle to the target and its inclination angle, the characteristics of the impacting spray will be varied. The characteristic velocity and thickness of the film created by the spray will be measured; the flux of secondary drops will be characterized. The liquid film on the surface, produced by the spray impact, will be modeled, accounting for the inertia of the fluctuations in this film, the volume flux and the momentum of the impacting spray. As the result of the study we expect to develop a model of spray impact which can be implemented in Euler-Lagrange simulations of spray systems (fuel injection, spray coating, spray cooling, etc.).

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr.-Ing. Ilia Roisman